Five years before Devin Kelley walked into a Sunday morning worship service in Sutherland Springs and killed more than two dozen people, he recorded a video in which he describes being bullied, suicidal and having trouble with self-control.

The video, obtained by WOAI-TV News 4 in San Antonio, was recorded in November 2012, when Kelley had been jailed while at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico after he admitted to fracturing his young stepson’s skull and attacking his wife. He was given a 12-month sentence, according to records.

Kelley, whose shooting rampage last Nov. 5 left 26 dead and 20 injured at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church, recorded the 20-minute video to persuade a judge to give his ex-wife custody of her toddler son, according to the news station.

Teary-eyed, Kelley recounts the multiple times he slapped his stepson because he had trouble controlling himself.

Most read

“There’s multiple times where I would get frustrated with him,” Kelley said, describing a time he slapped the child for crawling and trying to “grab something.”

He said losing control could “happen in a split second.”

“It only takes a few seconds to lose control,” he said. “I think when you’re under a bunch of stress, sometimes, you know, you can’t handle it anymore and you do outrageous things that you’d never do, like a hit a baby.”

Kelley and his first wife, his stepson’s mother, got divorced in October 2012.

“It’s hard to deal with knowing that I destroyed three lives – my own, my son’s and my wife,” Kelley said, noting he had been suicidal in the past.

Kelley, who attended New Braunfels High School, said he was bullied in elementary school, before finally deciding in the sixth grade he was “going to be the top dog.”

Later in life, Kelley “liked” pages on Facebook associated with atheism, according to friends who saw his profile before it was taken down. However, in the video, Kelley quotes the Bible, points to his religious tattoo and said only God could forgive him.

Five years later, Kelley would be found dead by authorities in the moments after the deadly church shooting attack.